The Italian male choir Ensemble Adhecaton gave a wonderful performance of Renaissance motets and Palestrina's Missa Papae Marcelli at the Oslo International Church Music Festival.
Is Allegri's Miserere really the most famous choral work of all time? Harry Christophers and the Sixteen offer a significantly altered version of this work, in a programme otherwise devoted to the religious music of Palestrina and Macmillan.
How would the Choir of King's College, Cambridge cope in the difficult acoustic of Sydney Opera House? Under the direction of Stephen Cleobury, they delivered a polished programme.
As part of the Muziekgebouw’s 2014 Choral Series, renowned chamber choir The Sixteen gave a passionate, committed performance of music by Palestrina, Allegri, and modern composer James MacMillan.
An interesting programme which brings together music inspired by angels from Palestrina to Tippett, sung in the gorgeous surroundings of St John's, Smith Square.
The Tallis Scholars have been one of the foremost Renaissance vocal ensemble since their inception forty years ago. This was the ensemble’s first visit to New Zealand (organised by Chamber Music New Zealand in partnership with the New Zealand Choral Federation and Dean Endowment Trust) and the performance quality made it worth every minute of the forty year wait.
Singing polyphonic music requires a specific sound. To be truly effective there must be a beautifully rounded and well blended choral sound, but at the same time the individual lines must be clearly decipherable within the overall texture. This is a balance that The Tallis Scholars seem to find effortless.
The programme notes for The Sixteen’s 2013 Choral Pilgrimage draw attention to how composers have been inspired by the grandeur and beauty of their places of worship and work. In this context, the setting for The Sixteen’s concert in Oxford was more than suitable. Completed in 1200, Christ Church Cathedral is a mixture of Romanesque and Gothic architecture.
“Please silence all electronic devices and refrain from talking. This evening’s program will be presented without intermission or breaks for applause. It is our hope that this structure will assist in providing a meaningful experience...
The Ensemble Vocalisa Variabile presented a varied programme in the Kirche St Georg, Denzlingen, featuring eight different composers whose period of activity spanned no less than six centuries. In addition to a number of fine musical high-points, it was this versatility which proved to be one of the most impressive aspects of the performance.
Choral concerts often have programmes that read like compilation CDs. I don’t mean this negatively: there are countless reasons why a greater number of contrasting pieces is required – timbral, textual, temporal, contextual, historical, and so on.
As part of the official opening of the new Ames Family Atrium, the Cleveland Museum of Art presented the brilliant twelve-man choral ensemble Chanticleer in a sold-out late evening concert on 30 January.
Unless you’re actually performing it liturgically, it’s very difficult to know what to do with sacred music these days. The masses of Palestrina, the motets of Byrd, the cantatas of Bach – all seem to merit our attention today, but not for the religious reasons for which they were originally written.
A competition for young composers run by the National Centre for Early Music may perhaps, at first glance, sound like a contradiction, but the winning pieces, performed tonight by the Tallis Scholars in Durham Cathedral, acknowledged the glories of early polyphonic choral music whilst conveying their composers’ own distinct musical ideas.
The last Sunday night before Christmas is traditionally an evening for carol services, but the Tallis Scholars gave a cool and stylish alternative, performing a selection of works devoted to the Virgin Mary at the Sage, Gateshead.
The Tallis Scholars enraptured a sold-out Alexander Hall at Richardson Auditorium in Princeton, living up to the high standards that audiences have set for the world-renowned ensemble. Their wide-ranging repertoire was reflected in Monday’s performance, which offered a mix of traditional pieces by composers such as Palestrina as well as contemporary works.
Trendy titles and taglines are more or less a given at classical concerts nowadays, but that doesn’t prevent me feeling a twinge of resentment each time pieces are pigeon-holed into a concert ‘narrative’. Thus it was with a certain trepidation that I headed to Southwark Cathedral for ‘The Knight and the Lady’, a concert of sacred vocal music performed by the New Renaissance Voices.
As part of the Choral at Cadogan Series, the venerable Tallis Scholars, now in its 38th year, brought a serious programme juxtaposing the sacred music of the Spanish Renaissance composer Tomás Luis de Victoria (1548-1611), whose 400th anniversary we are celebrating this year, and that of his Italian near contemporary Giovanni Perluigi Palestrina (1525/6-1594).
Das Huelgas Ensemble unter Paul Van Nevel präsentiert einen berückend schönen Konzertabend mit Musik aus dem hugenottischen Umfeld des 16. Jahrhunderts.
Le deuxième concert du Festival d'Ambronay 2015 était donné par l’ensemble vocal Voces Suaves. Souvent a cappella, leur programme composé de polyphonies et de madrigaux a mis en valeur le travail précis de ces jeunes artistes. Un moment plein de grâce, propice à la contemplation.
2014 marque le centenaire du début de la Première Guerre Mondiale. Les Tallis Scholars ont choisi de célébrer cette date par un programme qui tourne autour des idées de conflit, de paix, de deuil, et de consolation.
